Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Desolation Sound

It has been a very busy and eventful spring. I am still having a problem with my ankle - but that is a long story.

Jim and I have been taking some boating courses. We took the Canadian Power Squadron course in the fall and then in May we went to Boating University at Trawlerfest in Anacortes in Washington. I took a two day "Women and Boating" course from Captain Carol Cuddyer. Great course!! Carol was very encouraging and knowledgeable.

So ---- on June 10th we dipped our toes in the ocean ( so to speak ) and we rented a boat out of Comox B.C. and headed off to Desolation Sound.

The boat was a 40 foot boat called a Grand Mariner. We spent a few hours on Sunday getting orientated to the boat. I was lucky enough to snag the anchor on a cable on my very first time dropping the anchor. Luckily we were still in the harbour and help was close by. That was a bit of a concern but after that I figured it would only go up from there.

The first day - Monday - we motored off across the Straight of Georgia. It was a little scary at first but we were able to put all of our new found knowledge to use and realized we really could do this. Even though I had never EVER done anything like this in my life! Jim has spent a lot of time on fishing boat - although not in the captain's chair.

After we made it safely across the Comox Bar and the Straight of Georgia we spent our first night in Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island.

We anchored in the very calm and pretty little cove. The day was overcast and grey but not raining. We were able to drop the anchor and pull the anchor for the rest of the trip without incident. It is amazing to me that the anchor can hold the boat in a very confined area without having the boat float away. I would frequent check that we didn't move. Even during the night I would wake up and try to check our position. The first night after we got back home I would wake up and look out the sliding glass door and see the flashing light that marks a rock on Bowen Island and think " okay - good - the boat hasn't moved".

The following day - Tuesday - was a drizzly, wet and grey day. We decided to not do a long day of site seeing and motoring as the clouds were so low the visibility was very poor. We headed out late morning and went directly from Squirrel Cove to Prideaux Haven. A very popular and pretty anchorage.

This is a picture from the boat anchored in Prideaux Haven - looking out towards Melanie Cove. We were hoping to anchor in Melanie Cove but there were about 8 boats - mostly sailboats - already anchored there. We did about four loops around Prideaux Haven before we settled on a spot. I'm sure we provide a little afternoon entertainment for the rest of the inhabitants!

We had a very nice evening on the boat. We were beginning to get more comfortable. We used the little deck BBQ in the rain to cook up some Lamb sausage ( won't take lamb sausage again - very hard on the BBQ and Jim had to work hard to get all the lamb grease off it.).

I am going to end here and pick up on day three from the computer where I have most of the pictures. I needed a few pictures that I took with the IPhone.

3 comments:

Oh, you brave woman. Congratulations to you and Jim on a successful voyage! For some reason, I thought you were sailing, but this cruiser looks like a nice way to travel around to see those gorgeous sights. What a beautiful area to tour and a great trip for getting those toes wet. Now that you're hooked, a shiny new boat may be in your future?

About Me

I am married to Jim and have 3 children, Jessica , Eric and Andrew.We have two precious grandchildren - Hunter James and Phoenix Autumn and a dog named Jenny. I work part-time and quilt part-time. Mostly I collect fabric full time! We live by the ocean and kayak and swim in the summer. We have just recently boat a Kadey Krogen 42 and we are getting set up to explore the West Coat of BC